Short-Term and Long-Term Debt (Short-Term Debt) (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	$ 2,393	$ 1,380
Weighted average interest rate on outstanding short-term debt	1.76%	0.99%
Commercial paper
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	$ 744	$ 550
Weighted average maturity of outstanding commercial paper, in days	11 days	22 days
Long-term debt
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	$ 1,649	$ 830
Borrowings due overnight \| Commercial paper
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	207	277
Daily average outstanding \| Commercial paper
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	1,396	1,110
Prudential Financial
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	1,124	880
Prudential Financial \| Commercial paper
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	25	50
Prudential Funding, LLC \| Commercial paper
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	719	500
Real estate investment property \| Long-term debt
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Short-term debt	$ 49	$ 0

Amount of short-term debt and current maturity of long-term debt and capital lease obligations due within one year or the normal operating cycle, if longer.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.19,20)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

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- Definition

Period of time between issuance and maturity of debt instrument, in PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

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- Definition

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+ References

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- Definition

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+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.19(b))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

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